From: "Perry E. Metzger" <pmetzger@lehman.com>
Date: Thu, 10 Feb 94 15:00:23 PST
To: danisch@ira.uka.de (Hadmut Danisch)
Subject: Re: Oh No! Nazis on the Nets
In-Reply-To: <9402101946.AA08887@deathstar.iaks.ira.uka.de>
Message-ID: <199402102250.RAA20421@snark>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Hadmut Danisch says:
> > So, just to clear this up, if you wanted to start a newspaper today,
> > could you simply print out a few hundred copies of whatever you wanted
> > to say and go out and sell it (or give it away) without any
> > interaction with the government?  (I don't know the answer for
> > Germany; I'm genuinely curious.  I hope the answer is "yes".)
> 
> 
> Of course not without *any* interaction. You have to pay taxes if
> you earn money, and you are not allowed to do it
> anonymous. Everything must contain an address of someone
> responsible.

In the U.S., it is perfectly lawful for me to print a newspaper
ANONYMOUSLY, and sell it on streetcorners. Indeed, I may print
anything I wish anonymously, be it a book, a magazine, or a newspaper.

> But no one forbids to do produce a newspaper. Every school has
> a 'schoolpaper' (don't know how to translate well). Everyone
> who thinks he has to tell anything important prints anything
> on lots of paper at this University, in most cases political
> (often very left-wing) themes. 

Do you not have to register your newspaper?

> Our 'Grundgesetz', the constitution (like "Bill of rights") says
> that there is no censorship. Everyone can tell his opinion
> in "Word, letter and image":

Unless the words happen to be about Naziism, I take it, or about any
other ideology considered "dangerous".

Perry